Today Pondera and Rebel announced that they will take over the wind project at the breakwaters in the Eemshaven from YARD ENERGY. YARD developed this project in recent years, and as such, have reached agreement with Groningen Seaports on the use of the location. The main permits for the construction of two wind turbines have now been obtained.

“YARD has chosen to sell the project now to focus on completing the construction of onshore wind projects and investments in projects and companies related to the energy transition,” said Lex Roukens, YARD director. “We are delighted that Pondera and Rebel have taken over from us and are confident that the windfarm will be realised.”

“It’s a nice project for us to sink our teeth into, in view of the complexity of building turbines in and near the water,” says Hans Rijntalder of Pondera. “Our experience in realising the largest offshore wind turbine in the world in Rotterdam – the GE Haliade-X 12MW – is very useful here. We are pleased that we have found a solid partner in Rebel to help develop and finance the project. Rebel’s Wout Korving shares the enthusiasm: “Pondera and Rebel complement each other very well. I am therefore very confident that the turbines will supply electricity to the grid by mid-2022.”

Groningen Seaports also shares the enthusiasm. CEO Cas König says, “The realisation of these turbines is now one step closer. They will literally mark the entrance to Eemshaven and will contribute notably to our sustainable energy ambitions.”

The project consists of two modern wind turbines near the breakwaters. The capacity of the project is expected to be between 10 and 12 MW. Pondera and Rebel will fine tune the design in the coming months and select the contractor and turbine supplier, after which the financing will also be quickly realised.

This week a Request for information has been published on Negometrix and TenderNed for Windfarm Duiven and Windfarm Zutphen. Pondera assists together with PRO6 Managers, the initiators of the two windfarm (Waterschap Rijn and IJssel en IJsselwind B.V.) with the procurement of five wind turbines through an European tender procedure. To acquire relevant knowledge from wind turbine manufacturers previous to the tender procedure, a Request for information has been set up.

Wind turbine manufactures are asked to share their thoughts on for example suitable wind turbine types, measures to prevent nuisance and feasibility of the site layout. Based on the outcome of this Request for information, Pondera finalizes the employer’s requirements, tender guideline and contracts. These documents are the foundation of the tender procedure in which the initiators select the most suitable party(ies).

Jeroen Deddens (owner of Energiepark Pottendijk B.V.) and Eneco have reached agreement on the sale of Energiepark Pottendijk. With this agreement, Eneco will take over the further development and realisation of Energiepark Pottendijk. Pondera worked intensively with Mr. Deddens and law firm HVG Law to supervise the sale of Energiepark Pottendijk through an extensive tender. Pondera invited several potential buyers to make an offer for the purchase of the energy park. The sales support consisted of the following activities:

Eneco was selected as a buyer from this process. Subsequently, Pondera assisted Mr. Deddens during the negotiation and contracting of the SPA.

Energiepark Pottendijk consists of a wind farm of 12 to 14 wind turbines and a solar park of 35.5 hectares. In total, the energy park will generate approximately 100 MW of installed capacity. Pondera (in collaboration with BugelHajema) prepared the EIA in 2018 and applied for the environmental permit for the construction and operation of the solar park and the 14 wind turbines. On September 28, 2018, the municipality of Emmen issued the environmental permit for the construction and operation of the 12 to 14 wind turbines.

In the follow-up phase, Eneco will continue to work intensively with Mr. Deddens on the development and execution of Energiepark Pottendijk. Pondera will further support Eneco with the implementation permits and permit management for the realisation of the energy park.

On 17 February 2020, the City Council of Reusel-De Mierden decided to issue a declaration of no objection for the construction of Wind Farm Agro Wind. This paves the way for the Municipality Board to grant the definitive permit to the High Tech Agro Wind Association. This is a major step for the Association towards the realisation of the wind farm.

Pondera’s Haliade-X 12 MW prototype in Port of Rotterdam has just set a new world record! It is the first wind turbine ever to generate 288 MWh over the course of 24 hours. In the next 5 years, the Haliade-X prototype will undergo a series of tests to validate the turbine’s power curve, loads, grid performance & reliability. In addition, these tests will allow GE to collect the data needed to obtain the Type Certificate, a key step in commercializing the Haliade-X.

Key figures for the Haliade-X 12 MW

General information

Pondera Development and SIF Holding, together with GE Renewable Energy, are developing the Haliade-X on the Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam. The development of the innovative Haliade-X project in Rotterdam has been made possible thanks to Pondera’s extensive knowledge and many years of experience in Dutch wind energy legislation and regulatory policy. The increase in size and scale of (offshore) wind turbines is an important step in generating more sustainable energy, accelerating the energy transition and thereby limiting the effects of climate change.

The offshore wind turbine prototype is installed onshore in order to ease access for testing and monitoring purposes. This will also allow GE to collect the data needed to obtain the Type Certificate, a key step in commercializing the Haliade-X.

The Haliade-X can generate 46.3 GWh of electricity annually. That is enough power for 15,900 European households and thus saves 28.1 kilotons of CO2.

At the location of a future wind farm, measurements are often taken with a meteorological measuring mast or LiDAR to determine the local wind climate, which is necessary for financing and engineering of the planned wind farm. Given that measurement campaigns only last a year, or even less, it is necessary to compare the data with a long-term meteorological data set. During the short-term measurement campaign, for example, the wind speed may be slightly higher than the average for that time of the year. We often use ERA5 data from the preceding 15 years for this comparison. A disadvantage of the ERA5 data (and most other comparable data sets) is that, due to the time required for the verification process, the data is only available 2-3 months after the date. This results in a considerable delay in the delivery of the wind reports, which is certainly undesirable if the project is approaching financial close.

ERA5T, available since the beginning of December 2019, changes this by making the data available within five days. This allows measurement campaigns to be analysed faster, and it also makes them more flexible. For example, Pondera can now decide during the campaign whether the desired minimum uncertainty has been achieved and thereby advise whether the campaign can be shortened. This reduces the costs of measurements and increases the speed. In this way Pondera helps to make wind energy more affordable and faster to realise.

Background

The original ERA5 model is a weather model from ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and is based on historical weather data that models the weather around the world from 1979 to the present. In contrast to the ERA5 data, the ERA5T data from December 2019 has not yet been verified, but deviations from the final ERA5 data are very unlikely, according to ECMWF itself.

Pondera is expanding its business to Scotland by entering into the DeepWind cluster. This coincides with the start of the close cooperation of Pondera and Pronewable, where Matthias Haag is project director of Neart na Gaoithe, and forms a ‘flying start’ of Pondera’s Scottish operations.

The push for closer engagement in the Scottish and other UK offshore developments is a direct consequence of the collaboration with Oldbaum Services, located in Scotland and a long term partner. Pondera is currently focussing on expanding its turbine & wind resource testing services and is keen to demonstrate its unique knowledge and experience based on over 10 years of Dutch offshore developments, as well as its knowledge as launching customer of the Haliade-X turbine, suggested to be a key workhorse for many future UK projects.

On 17 and 19 December 2019 Pondera celebrated the inauguration of the World’s largest wind turbine: the GE Haliade-X 12 MW. “As developer and co-owner together with Sif – in the Futurewind project – we are proud to have contributed to this important new step in wind turbine technology” said Hans Rijntalder, Director of Pondera. He continues “And we would like to congratulate GE with this outstanding achievement. No need to tell that this step is important for the market development in Offshore Wind.”

During the official opening ceremony on 17 December, it was announced that Dutch energy company Eneco is set to purchase all the electricity generated by GE’s Haliade-X 12MW offshore wind turbine prototype. On 19 December we invited clients and relations to see and to hear more about this breakthrough technology.

According to GE, the Haliade-X 12MW prototype set a new world record by being the first wind turbine ever to generate 262MWh of clean energy in 24 hours, enough to power 30,000 households in the region.

Over the next five years, the Haliade-X prototype will undergo a series of tests to validate its power curve, loads, grid performance and reliability. The tests will also allow GE to validate operational procedures for installation and services teams and obtain a Type Certificate for the Haliade-X in 2020. Commercialization is planned by 2021, with serial production set to start in the second half of 2021.

Pondera Development and SIF Holding, together with GE Renewable Energy, are developing the Haliade-X on the Maasvlakte 2 in Rotterdam. The development of the innovative Haliade-X project in Rotterdam has been made possible thanks to Pondera’s extensive knowledge and many years of experience in Dutch wind energy legislation and regulatory policy. The increase in size and scale of (offshore) wind turbines is an important step in generating more sustainable energy, accelerating the energy transition and thereby limiting the effects of climate change.

The offshore wind turbine prototype will be installed onshore in order to ease access for testing and monitoring purposes. This will also allow GE to collect the data needed to obtain the Type Certificate, a key step in commercializing the Haliade-X.

The Haliade-X can generate 46.3 GWh of electricity annually. That is enough power for 15,900 European households and thus saves 28.1 kilotons of CO2. In the fall of 2019, the Haliade-X will generate renewable energy on the SIF site on the Maasvlakte.

Dutch based engineering consultancy Pondera and Korean engineering company Hanmi Global announced that they were awarded a contract from Jeju Hanlim Offshore Wind Co. to perform the role as an owner’s engineer.

The Jeju Hanlim Offshore project is the third offshore wind project in the Korean waters and the second one on a commercial scale. It is located near the Tamra Offshore project just of the coast of Jeju Island. The project size is approximately 100 MW. A consortium that consists of Korean KEPCO E&C in the lead combined with KOMIPO, DAELIM and BARAM is developing the project since 2011. The realisation of the project is an important step to speed up the utilisation of the offshore wind potential in Korea. It is expected that many other projects will follow as the Korean Governmental target to reach 20% renewables in 2030 is still far away. The idea is to develop 13 GW of offshore wind by that time.

Pondera and Hanmi are pleased with this contract. “It is a major breakthrough for us after being present in Korea for some years now and we hope to be able to assist our Korean colleagues with our Western owners engineering experience,” Pondera’s CEO Hans Rijntalder explains. Hanmi Global’s CEO Jong Hoon Kim adds: “Also for us this is an important step. We have a lot of experience with project realisation and construction management, but our knowledge of offshore wind projects is still limited. Therefore, we are happy to join forces with Pondera.”